房玄龄
Fáng Xuán​líng

Fang Xuanling

房 fáng house

Phonosemantic compound. 户 represents the meaning and 方 represents the sound.

Components

户
户 Meaning component
hù, hu door
方
方 Sound component
fāng, fang square

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartbjang[Cə-N-]paŋ side-room

說文解字

《說文》：“房，室在旁也。从戶，方聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

玄 xuán, xuàn black

Originally the same character as 幺. Similar to 幺, with an distinguishing mark at the top.

Components

亠
亠 Distinguishing component
tóu head
幺
幺 Iconic component
yāo tiny

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 10 verified)

畜弦眩舷炫铉泫痃牽鉉

Iconic (2)

鲧鯀

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthwen[ɢ]ʷˤi[n] dark

說文解字

《說文》：“玄，幽遠也。黑而有赤色者為玄。象幽而入覆之也。，古文玄。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

龄 líng age Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 齿 represents the meaning and 令 represents the sound. Simplified form of 齡.

Components

齿
齿 Meaning component
chǐ teeth
令
令 Sound component
lìng command

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

齡 líng age Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 齒 represents the meaning and 令 represents the sound.

Components

齒
齒 Meaning component
chǐ teeth
令
令 Sound component
lìng command

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangreːŋ
Unicodeleng

說文解字

《說文新附》：“齡，年也。从齒，令聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)